97. Create pathways from high school career and technical education (CTE) to community college associate programs.

Partnerships and P-12 Education Systems 09.6.24

Here’s what the federal government can do:

  • The U.S. Department of Education should collect, conduct, and disseminate research on best practices for aligning high school CTE curricula and courses to credit equivalence for associate degrees.

Here’s what state government can do:

  • State legislatures should enact legislation to align high school CTE curricula and courses to credit equivalence for associate degrees.
  • State legislatures should appropriate funding for grants that cover the cost of high school CTE programs for students from lower income backgrounds.

Here’s what institutional leaders can do:

  • P-12 systems should ensure that students have access to information and resources on postsecondary and workforce outcomes for CTE concentrators.[i]
  • P-12 systems and community colleges should create partnerships to align CTE curricula and courses offered in high schools to credit requirements for associate degrees.

High quality career and technical education (CTE) courses provide high school students with learning opportunities to build technical and employable skills centered on their career interests. CTE programs should connect students to postsecondary education — including pathways to associate degrees in community colleges — and be an on-ramp, not an off-ramp, to further education. Considering the lasting impact of student debt on personal and financial goals, P-12 systems should partner with community colleges to build stronger alignment across high school CTE courses and credit requirements of associate degrees.

After eight years of their expected graduation date, students who focused on CTE courses while in high school had higher median annual earnings than students that did not participate in CTE courses.” [ii]

[i]The term CTE concentrator refers to a student who earned two or more credits within a single program of study, such as Health Science or Business Management and Administration.

[ii]“CTE Data Story,” U.S. Department of Education. https://www2.ed.gov/datastory/cte/index.html.